Merlin Holmes: The Other One
by There-is-magic-in-your-smile
Summary: It started as a normal day in Baker Street, until the raven haired stranger showed up in London...
1. Chapter 1: A New Case

**Chapter One: A New Case**  
Sherlock was laying on the sofa when John walked in. The same old position on his back and fingers resting under his chin, clearly deep in thought. John stopped just inside the doorway and looked at his friend. While John had been out Sherlock had not moved at all, as far as John could tell. The flat was still covered with paper and mutiple files from the previous case. _He couldn't even be bothered to organise his files._  
"Hello John" Sherlock snapped John out of his thoughts.  
"So you decided to do nothing while I was out. Did you eat breakfast? Mrs Hudson did leave some food out for you." John always worried about Sherlock eating enough. Sometimes the detective could go days without eating a proper meal. If there was a case that needed solving then everything else came afterwards.  
"Yes I noticed. I did have some of it but there was little point in eating all of it" Sherlock very rarely ate a whole meal. He never thought there was much point because usually after half the meal he felt full so there was no need to eat all of it. However it always bothered John slightly that he didn't seem to eat enough, but John had given up trying to convince him to eat more a few weeks after moving in with the detective.  
"Right." John sighed and shook his head slightly. _How has this man survived this long on his own? It's a miracle that he hasn't gotton himself blown up or poisoned._ A loud knock at the door startled John from his thoughts.  
"Is Sherlock in?" John could hear their friend Lestrade talking to Mrs. Hudson downstairs, swiftly followed by the sounds of footsteps running up the stairs. Dectective Inspector Lestrade often came to Sherlock for help on cases that the police force couldn't solve.  
"Ah. Lestrade, I was wondering when you would show up." Sherlock said.  
"Yes, well. There's been a murder and we need your help." Lestrade replied seemingly flustered from his journey to Baker Street. Whenever Lestrade comes to Sherlock for help he usually ends up being insulted by the detective and so does the rest of the police task force. It was safe to say that most of the police force didn't like Sherlock one bit.  
"Who's on forensics?" Sherlock asked abruptly. This never affected if Sherlock was going to help or not, but he liked to know in advanced so that he can prepare for the amount of stupidity that he was going to have to deal with.  
"Anderson" Lestrade said hesitantly. _Oh great. This should be fun._ John sarcastically thought to himself. He knew that Sherlock thought that Anderson was the most irritating and idiotic of all the task force. John almost felt sorry for Anderson because he ended up being the one getting all the insults. Sherlock once told him to stop talking because he lowered the IQ of a whole street, back when John had only known Sherlock for a few days. Anderson could be very irritating and rude, much like Sherlock, but he didn't need to be insulted all the time. John heard Sherlock mumble to himself before the detective agreed to go.  
About an hour and a half after leaving Baker Street John and Sherlock arrived at the crime scene. Lestrade showed them into an old looking house, the grey stone walls were crumbling and the dark brown roof looked like it was about to cave in. All the windows had white wooden frames which had started to splinter and the front door continued the pattern. When they entered they were hit by the strong smell of rotting wood and a lot of dust. In the centre of the floor there was the body of the victim. John could already see the detective putting the pieces together. It was amazing to watch the dectective at work even though John had seen him work many times before, it's like John could see the cogs turning and Sherlock putting the evidence togther.  
"John?" Sherlock gestured to the body. Sherlock liked to get John's take on the case and often asked for him to examine bodies and tell Sherlock what he could. He partly did this to annoy Anderson but the dectective prefered John to tell him the medical side of the case because he wasn't a complete idiot. John walked towards the body even though he knew Sherlock probably knew already whatever John was about to tell him. The victim was a young women, maybe in her twenties, she had red hair and quite pale skin, but that could be because she was dead. She was wearing a blue tank top, dark jeans and combat boots._ She wasn't drunk and she hasn't chocked on any vomit._ John had knelt down beside her. He could see small bruises forming on her neck and were faint scars on her arms from about three years ago, John guessed at three years anyway. She was also bleeding from her left side. _She may have been attacked or mugged._ John finished assessing the woman's body, there was no other signs of anymore injurys.  
"The likely cause of death is a punctured lung on her left side and there are small bruises forming on her neck and shoulders." John turned to look at Sherlock who was deep in thought. John knew Sherlock had heard him but the dectective failed to acknowledge what he had just said. "Thank you John." Sherlock said as he started to walk towards the body a little while later. The dectective started to move around the body, kneeling down ocassionally to look closer. With a sudden turn Sherlock stood up and briskly walked around the room, looking at the walls and the floor. John knew what was coming next, Sherlock would turn to Lestrade and tell him everything that he had deduced at an alarming speed and leave them dumbfounded.  
"The victim is in her mid twenties, she has scars over her arms from a car crash that she had been in before, one of her shoes has come undone telling us she was in a rush..." Sherlock continued to talk for about a minute without stopping. Sherlock confirmed that what John had said was true, she died from the punctured lung, he said that the bruises were caused by someone grabbing her a bit too tightly. Lestrade asked if she had been attack but Sherlock quickly explained that she hadn't, as far as he could tell and he was usually right. Someone had probably grabbed her from excitement or something of the sort, maybe to tell her that she was bleeding but that's unlikely, according to Sherlock she hadn't been bleeding for too long before getting to this house._ But why did she come here?_ John couldn't help but think that the dectective wasn't telling them something. Luckily, for John, Lestrade asked Sherlock that particular question to which the dectective replied: "Isn't it obvious? This is her home."  
Soon after they left because the rest seemed to put itself together, some drunk homeless guy punctured her lung, probably with a borken bottle piece, for no apparent reason. Sherlock flagged a taxi and they set off towards Baker Street. However John could tell that something was bothering Sherlock, the question was what.


	2. Chapter 2: The Homeless Network

**Chapter Two: The Homeless Network**  
Sherlock's head quickly snapped up and he told the taxi driver to stop. They weren't at Baker Street but Sherlock got out the cab and John followed, quickly paying the taxi driver. John knew where they were, they had been here quite a few times before._ He must want to check in with his netwrork._ Sherlock had almost all of the homeless people of London working for him, he called them his 'Homeless network'. They were actually quite useful on cases and usually knew about anything new in London. Where they had gotten out of the cab is where most of the homeless network liked to hang around, it was sheltered from rain and wind and the public left them alone, as well as the police. Sherlock liked to call it the 'Shadow of London' because no one paid any attention to it. John felt bad for the homeless network, Sherlock paid them but not enough to get off the streets. Some save some of the money Sherlock gives them and eventually get off the streets, while others use their money to buy clothes, food and whatever else they needed. Sherlock avoided using the homeless people who have addictions because they wouldn't be useful and they would use the money to fuel their addiction.  
There were about fifteen people sat around a small fire. When one of them saw Sherlock he stood up to great him. The young man had brown hair, quite long, dark skin and hazel eyes. He wore scruffy jeans and a green jumper which was under a black jacket, he had muddy white trainers and a patterened beanie. " 'Ello Boss!" He said with a strong northern accent.  
"Hello Levi." Sherlock replied with a small smile on his face. Sherlock didn't care for many people but he had a soft spot for the homeless network. He didn't insult them as much as everybody else and he always talk to them for a few minutes, if he had the time to. He remembered all of their names and sometimes the odd bit of whatever they told him about when not talking about a case. "How's your shoulder?" Sherlock asked the young man. _Oh yeah! I remember you._ John thought to himself, Sherlock had asked him to look at Levi's shoulder when he had found out that he was in pain.  
"A lot better, thanks to you and your mate" Levi said nodding towards John.  
"It was no bother really" John said happy that Levi's shoulder had gotten better.  
"So, what brings you down 'ere then?" Levi asked.  
"I wanted to check in with everyone. Anybody new? Anybody disappeared? The usual." Sherlock replied.  
"We heard about that girl, the one who got killed by some drunk. He's long gone now, went towards the south." Levi said. "Nick saw some kid the other day, said he looked shifty."  
Sherlock raised an eyebrow. Whenever the homeless network said someone was behaving strangely they usuallly ended up being right. Sherlock asked where the 'shifty' looking kid had last been seen. Someone said that he was seen near the park about five minutes ago. Which is why about twenty minutes later Sherlock and John were stood in the park looking for someone behaving oddly.


	3. Chapter 3: The Raven Haired Stranger

p style="text-align: left;"span style="text-decoration: underline;"strongChapter Three: The Raven Haired Stranger/strong /spanbr /They walked through the park slowly looking around carefully. There were people running or jogging. There were serious looking business people having lunch sat awkwardly next to someone on a bench. John could see students studying on the grass and people listening to music, but he couldn't see anyone who looked suspicous. They walked for five minutes when Sherlock stop. br /"Look over there John, by the large oak tree." John looked where Sherlock described. There was a young man, maybe early twenties, with raven black hair and pale skin. He was wearing a loose fitting brown jacket, black jeans and white trainers and some sort of neckchief. The man didn't seem to notice John and Sherlock looking at him and turned his back to them, he didn't seem to be doing anything 'shifty'. Sherlock started to make his way over there and John quickly /The young man started to walk away and out of the park with Sherlock and John following behind him. The young man turned left out of the park and carried on down the street. Sherlock and John followed him for a while longer when Sherlock made a turn down a different Of course he knows where the kid's going./em John scastically thought to himself when he realised that Sherlock was taking a shortcut. Sherlock had done this before on the first case they had worked on together. Sherlock deduced where a taxi was going and took a shortcut to cut it off. That little chase fixed John's limp and helped Sherlock figure out the case, even if it took him a small while to fit the taxi into the puzzle. The street they took led them to another place where some of the homeless network liked to go, however there were only about six or seven people here. John could tell that they recognised Sherlock, so they were clearly working for him. Sherlock gave them a small shake of his head to tell them not to reveal where he was stood. A couple of minutes later the young man walked over to the small group. br /"Hello. Would you mind if I sat with you?" The young man asked the small group. His voice wasn't really deep or really high pitched, emsounds like he should have just left uni,/em and he had an english accent, telling John that he was almost definitely in his early twenties and that he was english. br /"Nah, pull up a seat." Replied one of the people sat around a make do /"So, haven't seen you before love. Are you new to the streets?" A woman asked the young man. He sat down and looked at her, his eyes seemed sad and he smiled at /"No been on the streets a few years, quite a few actually. I like to move around so that the cops leave me alone, haven't always been in London though." The man /"How'd you end up here then?" A different woman asked. br /"A lot of walking and trains, got caught without a ticket about twelve times before I got to London. I thought it would be too risky to continue for a while so I'm staying around London for a bit." The young man explained. Sherlock had clearly heard enough because he stepped out from the shadows and walked quietly towards the man. The man must have heard Sherlock and John walking up behind him because he turned around. John had never seen Sherlock look so shocked before./p 


	4. Chapter 4: Merlin

**Chapter Four: Merlin**  
The man had bright blue eyes, very pale skin and a very similar face shape to Sherlock. _He looks quite a bit like him._ John stared at the man for a bit then looked at Sherlock who had gone very pale and eyes wide. It was unusual for the detective to be shocked by anything, he once stored a severed head in the fridge, not a lot shocked him but the sight of this young man had given him quite a shock.  
"Hello, can I help you?" The young man asked. He looked at them with a slightly confused expression. _I suppose this must seem a bit strange,_ John thought particually because Sherlock was still staring at him.  
"Uh yeah. We were told there was someone new so we thought we should come find you." John said. _What the hell is wrong with Sherlock?_  
"Why?" The young man raised an eyebrow, clearly more confused than before.  
"I employ the homeless people of London to help me with my job" Sherlock said quickly. Sherlock had snapped out of his shock while John had been talking to the man.  
"Are you not capable of doing your job?" The man replied.  
"No love, not like that. We get him the information he needs faster than the cops can and he pays us for it." One of the women, who had spoken earlier, explained. The young man seemed to think about this for a couple of minutes. John really hoped that the young man didn't ask too many question that might be difficult to answer.  
"Alright. I suppose that makes sense." He finally said. "The name's Merlin"  
"I'm Sherlock and this is my friend John Watson." Sherlock replied. Sherlock must have thought that Merlin would be impressed by 'the great Sherlock Holmes'.  
"Nice to meet you." Merlin simply replied, showing no sign that he knew who Sherlock was. Whenever this happens it always made John smile because Sherlock always assumed that everyone knew who he was, he had no reason to assume this but he always did.  
"Nice to meet you to." John replied, knowing that Sherlock wouldn't. Merlin looked at them for a moment longer, then started to turn around. Merlin winced slightly while turning, obviously trying to conceal his pain but John noticed. "Are you ok?"  
"Yep, never better." Merlin replied with a hint of pain in his voice. _Looks like he's hurt his side or maybe it's his arm._ John watched Merlin carefully trying to figure out where the pain was. _Definately his side,_ John decided.  
"I'm a doctor, let me look." John said. He had no idea how to convince Merlin to let him take a look, this was all he had and John really hoped it would be enough.  
"The dectective and the doctor. Sounds like a bad tv show." Merlin joked. John continued to watch Merlin for a while, until finally Merlin sighed and shook his head. "Alright you win."  
"You had better come with us then." Sherlock simply said and started to walk away.  
A short time later they arrived at Baker Street. John showed Merlin to the living room amd gestured for him to sit down on the sofa. Merlin looked around him, taking in his surroundings and slowly sat down. Sherlock had gone into the kitchen to get together some files and start up one of his experiments. Merlin watched him carefully, not knowing what to make of the dectective, as he set up his experiment. John came back into the living room a couple of minutes later with a basic first aid kit, Merlin was still watching Sherlock when he came in.  
"Ok. Where's the pain?" John asked although he was almost certain it was his side, it was still better to ask him.  
"My side." Merlin said pointing at his side. John couldn't help but feel a bit proud of himself for figuring out where the pain was.  
"Take of your shirt then." John said kneeling down infront of Merlin so that he could examine his side. Merlin looked at him for a second then took of his jacket and shirt. Merlin was dangerously thin and he had cuts and bruises all over his chest as well as a couple of faint scars. One of the newer cuts went from shoulder to shoulder and John couldn't help but wonder about what sort of a life Merlin has. "Where on your side?" John asked. Merlin pointed to the end of his ribcage, which his skin was pulled tightly across. John could see a yellow bruise forming where Merlin was pointing and there was another bruise just above it. John lightly pressed where the bruise was forming, which made Merlin wince, luckily there were no broken bones or any other serious injury. It was just a bruise, quite a large bruise, but just a bruise all the same.  
"It's just a bruise. However you are dangerously thin, when was the last time you ate?" John asked. _It must have been a couple of weeks ago or something._  
"A few weeks ago I had some bread. There's still some in my jacket pocket." Merlin replied. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out half a slice of bread and handed it to John. The bread was dry, crumbling and had a little bit of mould growing on the crust.  
"Wait here." John instructed and walked out of the room. Merlin could hear him walking downstairs. Merlin looked around the room he was in again, there were stacks of files almost everywhere, a violin and sheets of music set up by one of the windows. Next to the same window there was a tall bookcase, stuffed tightly with books of different sizes and paper sticking out between some of them. On the mantlepiece there was a pile of letters that had a knife stabbed through them and a skull which sat upon a pile of books. Merlin looked at the skull for a while and wondered where it had came from and if it was real or not. Merlin felt someone looking at him, he turned to see Sherlock watching him the same way Merlin had been watching him earlier. Sherlock continued to stare at Merlin for a short while, which felt like minutes to Merlin, then turned away to continue whatever it was that he was doing.  
A few minutes later John came back followed by a little lady dressed in purple. She was carrying a tray with soup and bread on it as well as a cup of tea.  
"I hope your not a vegetarian, it's chicken soup." The little lady said placing the tray down in front of Merlin.  
"I'm not." Merlin assured her with a smile. "Thank you."  
"Of course dear. What lovely manners you have, manners are something that's missing in this flat." The lady said looking at John and Sherlock, neither responded.  
"That's Mrs. Hudson, our landlady." John said after she left. Merlin sat quietly and ate his bread, which was much better than the bread he had been carrying around, and soup. John watched him carefully, _what sort of a life have you had?_ John thought to himself thinking of all the cuts, bruises and scars that Merlin had on his chest, which John was more than certain continued onto his back. John wondered over to Sherlock to see what he was doing. John saw Sherlock quickly put his phone away before he got over to him. _Why's he acting weird today?_ John looked at Sherlock with a puzzeled look. Sherlock didn't address this and just picked up a file and walked over to Merlin. Sherlock put the file away in the small cupboard near Merlin and sat down in his black chair. Merlin had just finished his tea when Mrs. Hudson came back upstairs.  
"All finished?" She asked Merlin smiling down at him.  
"Yes, thank you. The bread was very good." Merlin replied grinning up at her.  
"Thank you dear, I made it myself." She said proudly.  
That's when Mycroft walked in.


	5. Chapter 5: The Other One

**Chapter Five: The Other One**  
Mycroft stood in the doorway looking at Sherlock. He was wearing a black pinstripe suit, white shirt and a red tie. He was carrying a black umbrella that had a wooden handle. _It's not even raining and you still carry that stupid umbrella._ John thought looking at Mycroft. When John had first met Sherlock's older brother he was leaning on the umbrella trying to look intimidating and failing at it.  
"I better be going, I've got more bread in the oven." Mrs. Hudson excused herself, she hated being around when Mycroft was at the flat because she usually got told to shut up by one of the two Holmes brothers. John sometimes wished he could leave but he didn't trust the brothers alone together and it wouldn't be fair on Merlin to leave him here with them.  
"Should I leav-" Merlin started to say but Sherlock cut him off.  
"No." Sherlock said ubrutly.  
Mycroft noticed Merlin for the first time since he arrived, he had turned as white as a cloud and eyes wide the same way Sherlock had.  
"Oh.." Mycroft said quietly. He continued to stare at Merlin who seemed quite confused by the whole situation. _Welcome to my world._ John sacastically thought to Merlin. John was often left confused when with one of the Holmes but when he was with both of them he usually felt completely lost. Both Holmes were looking at Merlin for a second then looked at each other, never changing their facial expressions just looking, as if they were having a conversation through one look. Merlin's wide eyes kept looking over to John, clearly uncomfortable and confused but all John could do was shrug.  
"Come with me then." Mycroft finally broke the silence after what felt like hours. Sherlock motioned to John and Merlin to follow, Merlin didn't understand at first but soon understood that he was supposed to follow. They went downstairs and Mycroft headed out the door to a black car.  
"You off then dear?" Mrs. Hudson asked Merlin.  
"Yes, it was lovely to meet you Mrs. Hudson." Merlin replied with a smile.  
"Your always welcome here." Mrs. Hudson replied. Merlin headed out the door after the others. He had never been in a car this expensive before, actually he had only ever been in one car. John could see that Merlin was uncomfortable in the situation that he found himself in. John found himself feeling sorry for Merlin because his day had turned out to be so weird and John knew how he felt, he was probably feeling confused, awkward, bewildered and so many other things as well just like John had the day he met Sherlock Holmes.  
"So your related then?" Merlin asked motioning to Mycroft and Sherlock.  
"Unfortunately." Both Holmes said at the same time in the same monotone voice. Merlin seemed amused by that and John found himself smiling at the brothers. They arrived at the Diogenes Club, where Mycroft spent most of his time, and Mycroft showed them to his office. A lot of the old men there gave Merlin a disgusted look and then went back to their papers while others just stared at them.  
"Sherlock what's this about?" John asked feeling left out of something big.  
"Merlin." Sherlock replied as if it should explain everything, which for John it certainly didn't.  
"What about him?" John pressed still feeling lost.  
"He's our brother." Mycroft said bluntly.


End file.
